Artificial heart revitalizes Monticello man

Monday

Dec 3, 2012 at 2:00 AM

MONTICELLO — At home in Monticello, Daquain Jenkins is enjoying the simple pleasures of walking his kids to the bus stop, and looking forward to Christmas morning, when his three young children will rip open the presents under the tree.

Victor Whitman

MONTICELLO — At home in Monticello, Daquain Jenkins is enjoying the simple pleasures of walking his kids to the bus stop, and looking forward to Christmas morning, when his three young children will rip open the presents under the tree.

Except for the backpack he carries and the chugging noise that follows him around, you wouldn't know this man was any different from anyone else.

When Jenkins, 29, left Mount Sinai Medical Center Oct. 25, the event was covered by CBS, Reuters and Fox.

In an eight-hour procedure in August, surgeons removed Jenkins' heart and transplanted a total artificial heart.

According to Mount Sinai, Jenkins was "the first patient in the tri-state area" to be discharged from a hospital with a total artificial heart. A 13.5 pound portable pump, known as "a freedom driver," an experimental device approved under a U.S. Food and Drug Administration clinical trial, enabled Jenkins to go home and be with his family while he awaits a heart transplant. The battery-powered pump, which clicks like a generator motor, drives air through tubes into his implanted heart and circulates blood.

Jenkins said he readily agreed to try the portable pump. His artificial heart was, for several weeks, connected to a large machine that kept him confined to his room. Jenkins didn't want his kids — two daughters, ages 10 and 5, and an 8-year-old son — to see him in the hospital.

"I was sick of being in the hospital," he said. "I wanted to see my kids and my girlfriend."

In August, Jenkins was on an urgent list for a transplant when the team from Mount Sinai decided a temporary artificial heart was his only hope while he awaited a new biological heart.

Four years ago, at age 25, Jenkins went to the doctor thinking he had a bad cold. He was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. The condition runs in the family. His biological father died of heart failure at age 28.

After receiving a pacemaker and defibrillator in April 2011, Jenkins underwent his first heart transplant at Mount Sinai. Initially he did well, but his body rejected the heart after one year. By August, he was rapidly deteriorating. Mount Sinai's team determined he had a 48- to 72-hour survival window. A surgical team was certified in two days, and the device was flown in from Arizona.

Jenkins and his parents, Alvin and Mary Dumas, met last month with the county's emergency personnel at Catskill Regional Medical Center in Harris to explain his unique condition. If Jenkins runs into problems, certain treatments won't work, such as CPR and defibrillation.

"He is like a guinea pig but it is all good because, God bless, he is with us," Alvin Dumas said. "It is giving hope to everyone else. He is our star in New York."

Jenkins feels much better than when his transplanted heart was failing. Back then, a short walk to drop his kids at the bus stop left him gasping for air. With the portable driver, he can walk around and stay up all day.

Jenkins takes regular trips to meet with the medical team at Mount Sinai. He expects to get a second heart transplant within a year, but now has time for Mount Sinai to find the perfect match. The family was told a patient lived four years with an artificial heart. Meantime, Jenkins has enrolled in online classes in web design at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

"I feel good," said Jenkins, who recently celebrated his 29th birthday — and three months of going strong with his artificial heart.